Engine and vehicle fuel efficiency can be improved by lean burn internal combustion engines. To reduce emissions, these lean burn engines are coupled to emission control devices known as three-way catalytic converters optimized to reduce CO, HC, and NOx. When operating at air-fuel ratio mixtures lean of stoichiometry, additional three-way catalyst, sometimes referred to as a NOx trap or catalyst, is typically coupled downstream of the three-way catalytic converter, where the NOx trap is optimized to further reduce NOx. The NOx trap typically stores NOx when the engine operates lean and release NOx to be reduced when the engine operates rich or near stoichiometry.
One method to provide emission control in a lean burn engine uses a sensor downstream of the NOx trap. The sensor is capable of measuring an amount of NOx in exhaust gas exiting the NOx trap. Engine air-fuel ratio is changed from lean of stoichiometry to rich of stoichiometry when measured NOx reaches a predetermined threshold. Such a method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,199.
In particular, the sensor described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,199 is capable of measuring both NOx and oxygen partial pressure in exhaust gas. The sensor has a first chamber where exhaust gas first enters and where a measurement of oxygen partial pressure is generated from a first pumping current. Also, in the first chamber, oxygen partial pressure of the exhaust gas is controlled to a predetermined level. Next, the exhaust gas enters a second chamber where NOx is decomposed and measured by a second pumping current, knowing the predetermined level.
The inventors herein have recognized a disadvantage with the above approach. In particular, if the output of the NOx sensor inadvertently indicates a NOx concentration greater than the predetermined threshold when NOx concentration is actually less that the threshold, lean operation will be ended prematurely. In other words, lean operation will be ended when it is actually possible to continue lean operation.